152 Mo. App. 589 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1911
This suit was commenced in the circuit court of Greene county, the object of which was to establish and foreclose a lien on bank stock in the hands of defendant W. C. Potter which plaintiff claims was put up as collateral to secure the payment of a note of $1500.00 which W. H. Brown, one of the defendants, executed to the plaintiff for money loaned for the purpose of buying bank stock. The suit was tried before, the court sitting in equity which rendered a judgment in favor of plaintiff and against Brown on the note, and also found that Potter had notice of plaintiff’s claim at the time he purchased the stock hereinafter referred to;
Defendant W. H. Brown was a clerk in the Birch Tree State Bank and desired to get a position as cashier in some other bank. He arranged with E. T. Pate, cashier of said bank, for the bank to loan him $1500, with which he was to purchase bank stock, and it was agreed that he would pledge this bank stock to secure the note. The note was made out and signed, but the money was not paid at the time, it being understood that Brown was to draw for the money when he had bought the stock. Brown started out on a prospecting trip and finally located at Fair Grove, Missouri, where he purchased stock in the Bank of Fair Grove. Brown’s negotiations with the Bank of Fair Grove resulted in his purchasing considerable more than $1500 worth of stock; in fact, he purchased forty-five and one-half shares of stock in this bank, at the price of $150 a share, making a total investment of $6825. The money for this investment came from the following sources: $3825 from the Bank of Commerce, of Springfield; $1500 from plaintiff bank; and $1500 from Brown’s mother-in-law, Mrs. W. B. Moore, one of the defendants. Four shares of this stock were subsequently sold and the $600 received was applied on the note which had been executed to the Bank of Commerce, leaving forty-one and one-half shares. At the time Brown borrowed the $3825 from the Bank of Commerce, he put up with that bank thirty-nine and one-half shares of stock, valued at $5925, to secure this note. Just prior to the time he bought the stock, he drew on the plaintiff bank for the $1500 which that bank was to let him have, but Mr. Pate, cashier of that bank, refused to honor Brown’s check because Brown had not put up the stock as collateral. On assurances from Brown that he would send
The evidence tended to show that defendant, Mrs. Moore, did not know- of Brown’s indebtedness to the plaintiff bank, and that she never in any way consented for her stock or her interest in the bank stock of the Bank of Fair Grove to be hypothecated for his debt to that bank (plaintiff) or to the Peoples Bank. That Brown did not disclose to the Bank of Commerce at the time he made his loan and deposited the bank stock as security that $1500 of the money he was using was the money of Mrs. Moore or that she claimed any part of the stock; that afterwards, $600 was paid on the note executed to the Bank of Commerce; that Mrs. Moore, when she ascertained that the stock had been taken in Brown’s name, within a reasonable time, considering the circumstances, made complaint, and insisted that the stock he placed in her name, and that by an arrangement with Mrs. Moore and Brown she agreed, to take more of the, stock than her $1500 would come to at $150 a share; that, with such understanding, she did take twenty and three-fourths shares. After some of the stock was re-issued, we find the stock in question distributed as follows:
Held by Banlc of Commerce-.
14% shares, W. H. Brown,
19% shares, Mrs. W. B. Moore,
5% shares, Mrs. Bertha Brown.
39% shares.
*594 Not Held as Collateral Security:
1 share, W. H. Brown,
1 share, Mrs. W. B. Moore.
When the arrangement for the new loan was made by the Bank of Commerce, its cashier notified the plaintiff bank of the transaction and told the plaintiff bank there was enough stock in Brown’s name to secure said bank. Later, the Bank of Pair Grove was examined by a state bank examiner and Brown was found to be short with the bank about $1000. • This resulted in negotiations leading to the purchase of the forty-one ■and one-half shares of Brown’s and Mrs. Moore’s stock by defendant, W. C. Potter, the president of the Bank ■of Pair Grove, and the discharge of Brown as cashier. Potter paid $147 a share for said stock, making a total. ■of $6100.50. Of this purchase price, $3200 was paid to the Bank of Commerce, leaving a balance of $2900.50. Of this balance, $1500 was retained by defendant Potter, and the remainder, $1400.50, was paid over to Brown, who stated that he paid it to the Peoples Bank, •of Springfield, from which he had borrowed $1500.
The note sued on is as follows:
“$1500.00 Birch Tree, Mo., April 19, 1909.
“One day after date, for value received, I promise to pay to the order of the Birch Tree State Bank, at the Birch Tree State Bank, the sum of Fifteen Hundred Dollars, with interest from maturity at the rate of •eight per cent per annum, payable annually; and if the interest be not paid annually or when due, to be added to and become a part of the principal and bear the same rate of interest. ...
“W. H. Brown.
“No. 2052. P. O. Pair Grove.
■“Secured by bank stock held by Bank of Commerce,
Springfield.”
Endorsed on back: “Int. paid to Peb. 16, ’1Ó.
-SI 00.00.” •
The evidence further tended to show that the plaintiff bank, prior to this time, had been claiming a lien, to secure its note, on all the stock originally deposited with the Bank of Commerce. After the new deal -had been made and the new note executed to the Bank of Commerce, its cashier notified the plaintiff bank of the arrangement it had made, and an agreement was entered into between Brown and the plaintiff bank to the effect that his stock which he had deposited with the Bank of Commerce should be held by such bank to secure his note to the plaintiff bank, subject to the first claim of the Bank of Commerce to secure its loan, and the cashier of the plaintiff bank made an endorsement on the note of Brown held by it to the effect that the stock held by the Bank of Commerce was security for its payment. The evidence also tended to show that Mrs. Moore had no knowledge of the indebtedness of Brown to the plaintiff bank or of any agreement that his stock should be security for such loan. Subsequently, Brown, becoming involved, entered into negotiations with W. C. Potter, the president of the Bank of Fair Grove, for the sale of the forty-one and one-half shares of stock which was deposited with the Bank of Commerce, and before the trade was consummated, Potter received notice that the plaintiff bank held a lien on the stock to secure its $1500 note, and, in order to secure this claim and protect himself, Potter entered into an arrangement with Brown by which $1500 of the purchase price of the stock should be held by the defendant, J. W. B. Appleby, until the plaintiff’s lien on the stock should be determined, and Potter purchased the
Under the uncontradicted evidence, at the time the stock was on deposit in the Bank of Commerce, Brown agreed with the plaintiff bank that his stock deposit
But the issue of paramount importance is raised by the facts in this case and is as to the claim of Mrs. Moore to the $1500 left in potter’s hands which he deposited with Appleby as stakeholder to abide this litigation. The entire purchase price of the stock was $6100.50. The defendant Potter paid $3200 of this to the Bank of Commerce, deposited $1500 with Appleby, and paid the balance, $1400.50 to Brown who paid it to the Peoples Bank, of Springfield, as a credit on the loan he had made with that bank. So that if it should now be held that the defendant Potter should pay the sum of $1500 held by said Appleby, it would result in a loss to him of that sum of money in excess of the purchase price which he was to pay for the stock. The evidence clearly establishes the fact that Mrs. Moore authorized her son-in-law, Brown, as her agent, to sell her bank stock to Potter, and necessarily authorized him to take possession of the stock and deliver it to the purchaser and out of the proceeds to pay her note of $3225 executed to the Bank of Commerce, which such agent proceeded to accomplish. An agent wrho has possession of
We find that the plaintiff agreed in the trial court not to make any claim of lien on the bank stock for attorneys’ fees or interest; we find also that W. H. Brown was indebted to the plaintiff on the note sued on in the sum of $1500, and that the plaintiff is entitled to a lien on the bank stock of the Bank of Fair Grove— formerly held by the Bank of Commerce, of Springfield, as collateral security, which was purchased by the defendant, W. C. Potter — to the amount of $1500, and is entitled to the $1500 fund held ,by the defendant, J. W. B. Appleby, and that the defendants, Mrs. W. B. Moore and Mrs. Bertha Brown, are not entitled to any portion of such fund. The defendants, the Bank of Fair Grove, J. W. B. Appleby and W. O. Potter are required to deliver into the circuit court the $1500 fund retained by the said Appleby out of the proceeds of the purchase price of the stock, which fund shall be paid to the plaintiff in full satisfaction of its lien on the stock. The defendants, W. G. Potter, J. W. B. Appleby and the Bank of Fair Grove, shall not be charged with any interest, costs or attorneys’ fees by reasons of this litiga